Birds of Prey on Display

Sky the Red-Tailed Hawk, Sunshine the American Kestrel, Stella the Peregrine Falcon and Ulysses the Great Horned Owl displayed their beauty and strength for the audience at the Thursday.

The birds were part of the Raptor Program, just one of the activities during Earth Week. Staff from the Northern Illinois Raptor Rehab and Education demonstrated the power and strength of the animals.

Raptors include hawks, owls and eagles. They have incredible eyesight, swooping speed and talons that can kill their prey in an instant. They are meat eaters and can digest all parts of their prey including fur and bones. They eat rodents, fish, rabbits and other birds or owls. Raptors are ideally suited to live in the wild. If they get injured, however, they may need help to survive.

That is where Northern Illinois Raptor Rehab and Education comes in. The organization helps 25 to 30 birds per year.

"Our passion is to get these birds back out into the wild," said Candy Ridlbauer of Loves Park, Ill., who runs the organization with her husband Steve. If the animal's injuries are too severe where they cannot survive in the wild, they remain with the organization and are used to give foster care to others or for educational programs.

"Raptors are descended from dinosaurs," said Ridlbauer, as she held the birds on her gloved arm.

"If the bird gets injured, say they get hit by a car, there is only a two or three day opportunity to fix an injured bone," she said. "Their bones heal twice as fast as a human's because their bones are hallow."

She said raptors have three features that are designed for their survival - vision, hooked beak and talons. Their vision is 10 times better than a human during the day. At night, owls have 100 times better vision than humans.

"A Red-Tailed Hawk can see a mouse a mile away," Ridlbauer said.

Their hooked beak is used to tear flesh and break the bones of their prey. and their strong feet and talons can kill an animal instantly.The audience at CLC enjoyed seeing the large wingspan of the raptors when they stretched and seeing owls that were molting.

Samara Watson, 10, of Spring Grove, was fascinated by the raptors and asked several questions during the program.

"This was great. I am homeschooled, so I like learning anything about animals," Watson said. "I love going to museums. Here, I liked seeing the raptors. I liked learning how they molt and how quickly their bones grow back together."